A Strange Reincarnation
by UzumakiAce
Summary: What If Pirate Portgas D. Ace instead of dying and being sent into the afterlife was instead sent to the world of living only to take up the role of a protective and loving brother once again. Follow the life and legacy of Ace in a new world where he retains his old memories and powers too.
1. Prologue

**Disclaimer:I DO NOT own Naruto or One Piece or any of the character related to the respective stories.**

**A/N: I have been a Fanfic reader since a long time now however this is the first time I am publishing a story of my own. I have had many ideas before but couldn't put it to work due to a hectic student life. This is just a trial and though I have roughly outlined a story, I will constantly work on it if my writing is enjoyable to the readers and critics since I have never been into literature much being an engineering student and is a One piece and Naruto Crossover basically. The first chapter will give a insight into what I have planned. If you dont like the basic idea, just say it, I have few more to capitalize on. Thank you very much and read further.**

DEATH! Its one of the biggest mystries for those alive still. Some say death simply signifies that one's existence has been ceased. Some believe in afterlife and say we get to a place depending on the deeds we performed throughout our life. Some even believe in reincarnation. However It's yet to be confirmed what death brings upon an individual's soul exactly. And we fear what we don't understand. Well most do. That's why they fear death. They fear for their incomplete dreams and tasks. They fear for the fate of their loved ones. But what if you die protecting what you cherish the most. That's the exact reason why Portgas D. Ace died with a smile plastered to his face. He wasn't going to mourn for his own death, no he was far from it. He was happy that he could use his good for nothing life to save the life one of his precious, his little brother Luffy. And that's why even though he may have had regrets, he's happy for what transpired in the end.

'Man, I wish i could see the end of it. I wish i could see Luffy achieve his dream. Well everything doesn't happen according to your wish.'

He reflected his own life ever since from the beginning. Since he was a kid, his time with his brothers, his time with his crew-'Wait I think its been a while since I have been thinking. Is it supposed to be like that till eternity? If it is, I will be dying from boredom once again, If only it is possible that is.'

His musing however ended when he found himself all of a sudden in front of a campfire. 'Huh? what now? Are we having a party for my death or something?'

"I thought you would live a little longer."A voice spoke somewhere around

Ace turned around to see who this could be and he was stunned when he saw who it was. Sitting just besides him was his biological father Gol D. Roger.

"Roger." Ace spat

"Well that was cold son. Is that how you wish your dad for the first time you meet him?"Roger said

"There is no reason for me to consider you my father except of course i have your blood in my veins, the blood of a demon! Call me ace if you really need to talk to me at all." Ace said with a little animosity.

"Hmm. I should have expected that. You birth itself was an abomination according to people, not that i even a tad bit agree with them but that should have caused you some problems now and then."Roger replied

"You will hardly understand my situation. Besides I dont want to explain anything to you get this to your head, Whitebeard is my only father and I will sacrifice my life for him if it needed be."Ace said

Roger chuckles. "I am glad that you found the right person to be called your father. That man always preferred family above all." Roger said

"Is this how death supposed to be for me? I should have expected, this is the definition of hell for me afterall. Sitting and chatting with the man I despised most for all eternity." Ace said with a little brooding tone

" I wouldn't mind this being your punishment or something like that but you will be moving on. Your destiny hasn't been fulfilled yet. At least that's my musings on this." Roger said

"What the Hell is that even supposed to mean?" Ace asked, slightly annoyed with the complex answer.

"You will understand soon enough. But first of all tell me, why do you hate me?"Roger asked

"Seriously? You don't have a clue?"Ace asked, clearly indicating that it was a preposterous question in itself according to him that is.

"I have my own theories but i would like to hear it from you."Roger said

"You don't need to know the answers yet however know this that I don't owe you anything. I am not truly sure myself if it's neutrality or pure hatred but you hold little importance in my life."

Sigh. "Well I was expecting some insight into our so called biological relationship but I feel I won't be getting anything right now out of this. I hope you will form a better and more transparent opinion on this meanwhile in your new home. Goodbye son for that is, I don't wish to see you for a long time at a place like this at least." Roger said

"Wha-" Ace was cut off when a greenish white light surrounded him and he was sucked into some sort of a hole. He found himself scurrying down towards what seemed to be an endless pit until getting out and his consciousness landing itself somewhere in a sort of liquid like thing.

'Now I am even more confused. Maybe I could have gotten some answers if I talked to Roger a bit more nicely. Bah screw that, anything but that.' Ace thought. Moments later he found himself being dragged out of somewhere and in the hands of what seemed to be someone dressed up like a nurse and a red haired woman a little later.

'If this is what I think it is, I would be damned.'

(Somewhere in Konohagakure no Sato, 9 months earlier)

Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage of Konoha was on his way back from a very important mission somewhere near the border of Iwa. He knew from his instincts that the world is in the verge of a war. He hated unnecessary violence however he would protect his village with everything he got if he needed be. However he was brought out of his thoughts when he encountered a certain perverted sensei of his.

"Jiraiya Sensei, I thought you were gone again to spy on that snake." Minato said

"Well He's been a little too slimy lately. And you know at times like these, we have more important things to take care of. How was your mission by the way?"Jiraiya said

"It seems like peaceful times will face their end very soon."Minato said

" I hope you will be able to guide the world in the right direction." Jiraiya said with pride.

"Jiraiya Sensei, I have already told you I am not sure If I really am the child of prophecy." Minato said

"Doesn't matter, I still have faith in you. On a completely different note however, How about you start reading this masterpiece of mine." Jiraiya said bringing out a pair of orange printed material from within his coat.

"I am not a pervert sensei" Minato said, annoyed.

"But you do have a hot girlfriend. I wonder if she would like to star in my novel." Jiraiya said with a lecherous grin.

Merely a millisecond later, Jiraiya found a Hiraishin Kunai on his throat, "Dont even think about it Sensei. I don't know about my actions but Kushina will kill you for sure. I don't want to choose between the two of you." Minato said

"Oh well, I hope you will realize its value some day" With that, Jiraiya was about to disappear when a gust of wind, completely unexpected and out of place, blew away some of the material in Jiraiya's hand.

Minato grabbed the material and was about to return it when he spotted few naked drawings on the cover. He opened the book and went through a couple of pages. He stared at them for a while and then returned it back. All the while, Jiraiya felt content with the proceeding in front of him.

"See I told you my work will be appreciated by even you someday." Jiraiya said with a broad smile.

"Don't think anything of it sensei. I was merely Curious." Minato said

"Oh well, you won't be able to resist for too long now, I am sure of it", with that being said, Jiraiya finally departed.

However Minato's mind was a complete wreck. 'Man, I cant believe that thing turned me on. Well I do have a girlfriend and we have done it a few times. I just hope she's in the mood today.' Minato thought before disappearing in a yellow flash.

(Konohagakure no sato, Hospital, Current Time)

"Minato look, he's so cute. He has blonde hairs just like yours and dark violet eyes mostly like mine."Kushina said excitedly

"This is one of the happiest day of my life Kushina.I am just glad that everything went fine, considering the risks involved with the presence of your tenant. I never thought I would be a father so soon however now that I am, I will take this responsibility as a father with utmost seriousness." Minato said

"What should we name him btw? You said you wanted to name your first child Naruto right?"

"Hmm, I am sure He would-" He was cut off by faint mumblings from his son. On a closer inspection, He seemed to be trying to repeat a world sounding akin to Ace?

"Ace? What is he trying to convey exactly?" Minato said

"Wow, I cant believe it. He has already started his attempts on talking." Kushina said

"How about we name him Ace then? This is a remarkable achievement afterall, to be able to express yourself at such a young age." Minato said, clearly proud of his son.

"Welcome to the family, Namikaze Uzumaki Ace." Kushina said lovingly.

And Portgas D. Ace has been reborn as Namikaze Uzumaki Ace this time. Unknowingly to him, holding the responsibilities of a big brother once again.

**A/N: Thank you once again for being patient and reading it this far. Please point out the errors in my writing if you find some, I wont mind. I am still in the learning phase afterall.**


	2. I am not your average kid

**Disclaimer:I DO NOT own Naruto or One Piece and hence will not take credits for those awesome manga.**

**A/N:This chapter will probably be a bit boring since it will be more or less introduction to the story and the interaction of Ace with his parents. He will continue being a jerk for a while wrt his relationship with Minato and Kushina however things will change soon. I usually write a chapter in one go hence can't write long and beyond chapters. I will try to increase the lengths as much as possible subsequently. There are a few more things I would like to consult with you guys, I have decided to give Ace either Sharingan or Kyuubi's half chakra along with his Mera Mera no Mi and Haki of course. I have not decided on what to do about it yet. Please express your thoughts on it and read further.**

Life's not fair. That he knew from personal experience. Being a pirate and all, you wouldn't expect him to be a sage. He has had his fair share of crimes, though he was considerate and not as ruthless as some of the other pirates out there. Still, he expected to land in hell as the worst possible case after that but not this, not this at all. 'Death's not fare'. All he wanted was a peaceful afterlife, even if it was with a satan, he wouldn't have been surprised himself. But being reincarnated was NOT in his wish list.

He realized the happenings when he felt himself in a small body. The body of a newborn of course. And there's a silver lining to every cloud. He was born as a human again after all. Who knows how this new life would have been if he had been born as an ant, a rat perhaps or maybe by some twisted fate, a Sea King? 'No, stop those chain of thoughts. I am a human again. And I am glad for that.'

There was another big question of course. Is this the same world as his? He wasn't a commander for nothing. He had his reasons and experiences to believe things beyond imagination and that only proved right after the chain of events that took place after his death. He knew that this might be a different world altogether where there was no Luffy, no Whitebeard, no Blackbeard, Marco or any of the others. 'I will get to the end of this slowly. But behaving as a child for now won't be that tough. All you have to do is eat and sleep and that I absolutely love besides battle of course.'

His so called 'Mother' seemed to be a beautiful red haired lady and his 'Father' must be the blonde one besides her then. 'Hmm, I wonder what my hair color is this time.'

However these chain of thoughts stopped when it seemed like they were about to name him. If there is one thing he named about himself, it was his name. Ace was an awesome name. There is no way in hell or in some other world or wherever, he's going to give up on it. He tried to channel his thoughts through his speech however it seemed like this won't be as easy as he thought considering no new born baby should be able to talk. He desperately tried to repeat his name over and over again in hopes of having his way and it worked towards the end. 'Namikaze Uzumaki Ace, I can live with that, though I died a while ago. Oh the irony!'

(Time Skip- One Year)

An year old kid could be seen in the kitchen eating like he has never done so before. Evident from the mass of meat he was holding and was definitely going to eat, it was pretty clear that his diet exceeded anyone his age. Surely he continued with the breast milk since he didn't want to grow up with any lesser strength however his diet increased exponentially in recent months. His love for this specific delicacy, meat was uncanny and unusual compared to the likes of ramen or such which his mother held.

"He's going to grow up as a strong shinobi Minato. Look how he takes care of his own diet himself." Kushina said to his husband from across the table.

" I am sure he will. I first thought your love for Ramen was sort of an obsession however one look at Ace's love for meat and I am sure yours is nothing more than a matter of preference." Minato said slightly amused at his son's weird quirks.

"You will never understand the immense pleasure of eating to your heart's content Minato. You would have to have time to eat properly for that. Ace has already surpassed you in terms of quantity of food he eats. All you do is train and work on that teleportation seal of yours." Kushina said with a pout.

"Now Now Kushina, Not everyone is as normal as you two when it comes to their diets." Minato said

However their chat was cut off by the snores of a kid.

"You see? He slept again just like that. I told you it's not natural the last time this happened. It's like he can sleep in the middle of anything and anywhere." Minato said slightly surprised

"Give him a break Minato, He's only an year old." Kushina said

" I want some more meat." Ace replied all of a sudden

'He woke up again!'Minato thought

"I will get it Ace" Kushina said

(Later that night)

"Even though he can talk at such a young age, which is astounding in itself, he hardly speaks anything other than for his basic needs. You would expect a child to be curious or even loudmouth. Its like he knows what he's doing most of the time." Minato said while lying next to kushina on the bed holding her close to himself. He has analyzed and always wondered about this ever since Ace started talking. It was at an age of merely 8 months. He expected their interaction with their son to increase with this progress however ace refused to talk much except for most important of the things. It was like he was neutral towards them, even cold at times. They were practically a stranger to him.

"Come on Minato, He has yet to see the world outside much. He will grow up to be a normal and loving son. And not everybody is as curious about everything as you." Kushina said, trying to comfort his husband but she herself found this occurrence a bit strange."Can you believe he can walk already? It happened a week ago but it seems like yesterday only when he managed to make a run from me to that ball in the park." Kushina said, proud of how fast his son progressed at things.

"I know and I am as proud as a father could be at his son at a time like this. I just hope his behaviour improves with time." Minato said with a sigh.

Meanwhile Ace was lying in his funky bed that any usual kid his age gets to sleep on and kept pondering over the last one year of his new life. It has been weird to be a kid again though fun nonetheless. Just as he thought, all he had to do was eat, drink and sleep. But it still got boring as hell once in a while. He wasn't independent anymore. That's something a pirate love the most. Independence and freedom. No, he just had to stick to being a kid and do the most boring of the things like any other kid. No sailing, no battles, no fun at all.

From what he gathered about this world it was definitely not his. This was an altogether different world with different countries or elemental nations as they have been called here, not islands. There was no grand line, No vast seas to sail on. Hell even the pirate population was really small here compared to his dimension. So the option of taking up piracy had been abandoned altogether.

Rather he had a different goal now, Shinobi or ninja. That had been a little weird for him at first when he thought of it. Surely the shinobi populace got to go out of the village, have their fair share of fun and enjoy a battle hardened life like any other pirate but that would mean he would be on the other side of the law this time. The idea was bizarre at first but that's the best he would be able to manage here.

Surely the people were no pushover in terms of strength, skill or power here. This world has their own godlike warriors and strongest of the people who could destroy mountains if it needed be but stamina wise their battles didn't last as long as in his own world. These shinobi here couldn't fight for days. But their skills and techniques made them deadly nonetheless.

The people here used something called chakra. At first Ace thought they referred to haki as chakra but he was proved wrong when he saw firsthand what chakra could do. His mother spew fire during one of her spars with his dad. He nearly choked on his own spit that time and wondered if it was the power of Mera Mera no Mi but he abandoned that thought when he saw his mother spew a mass of water too, a little later.

He concluded that chakra is a type of energy which can be molded into one of five basic elements or a combination of two or more and control them up to some extent, not as flexible as logia fruits though, still useful at times. The even more strange fact is, they can literally walk on water with the help of this chakra, oh he would love to do that some day.

Once he decided that he want to be a strong shinobi, he had quite a lot of strong shinobi to idolize from the stories he heard once in a while from his mother. Though from the interaction his father used to have with his colleagues, Ace knew that Minato himself was one of the strongest shinobi throughout the world. Ace was happy for this but he didn't think much of it. He wasn't literally his father after all. He has left his father in the other world and he would niether accept Minato nor Roger as his father.

Same went for his mother. He wasn't hostile towards them per se but that didn't mean he acknowledged them as his parents. No, it was just through a twisted destiny that he got into this and so he spaced himself out from his parents after a while. Though he used to behave like a normal child... well mostly, he still had a strict business type interaction with his parents. He knew this might hurt his parent a bit but why should he care? They were not his parent for real, he strictly kept this policy in his mind.

Ace tried to access his previous abilities several times but failed. He could neither use his Mera Mera ni Mi powers nor his Haki related abilities. Infact once he literally put his hands on fire just for the heck of it and it literally burned. He got an earful from his mother for his recklessness. However all of this changed after a particularly interesting incident.

(One month ago)

One very fine morning, Ace was relaxing on the balcony of his parent's room. He was still thinking about all the things he would like to do in this world when he got old enough. One of his main priorities was to get stronger and faster as soon as possible. He didn't want to be as helpless as nor forever obviously however the fact that he needed rescue in his previous life that too from his little brother and it almost cost Luffy his life in the process didn't bore well with him.

Ace started light stretching and casual morning walk just a week ago. He knew he couldn't do much until he got a little older but he couldn't just sit and do nothing. That's what Ace was doing right now, some light stretching. But curse his bad luck or his bad instincts that he lost his balance and fell from an opening in the balcony. He should have known that his fragile body can't bear much at such a young age.

He desperately wished with all his will power not to have a permanent damage but even though he fell only from a single floor, he was still a kid. He braced himself from the blow but as soon as his head touched the ground, instead of his skull being damaged, the ground cracked under his head and he felt as if he wasn't hurt at all. He couldn't conceive what exactly happened there.

As soon as Minato and Kushina saw the dreaded sight, they ran towards the balcony. Even though Minato was probably the fastest man alive, he wasn't fast enough to traverse that much distance that soon since his vision was partially blocked due to the canopy wall.

"Ace", Minato and Kushina shouted in chorus

They were fearing for the worst however when they reached Ace, what they saw made their mouths hanging open. They couldn't come up with a convincing theory about the incident for a long while but they were still thankful that their son hardly had any injury.

However Ace knew exactly what happened. It was his Armament haki. He was so glad that day that he ate even more than usual. He just wished he had his old crew to celebrate with him. He knew that he could unlock his other skills and powers after a certain age now, he just wished it included the powers of Mera Mera no Mi though, it was awesome after all. 'Oh this world is in for a big surprise though. Pirate Shinobi Ace will show them what he's made of.'

**A/N:There, the second chapter is over. There will be some action up next. I will try my best to make it exciting :) **


	3. Friends Forever

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. **

**A/N:Alright, here's the new chap. I have been busy with exams and shit these days. Sorry, it took so long to publish it. Anyways, I read the reviews and I really appreciate your point of view. About the extra powerup, either Kyuubi or Sharingan, I wanted Ace to be truly fearsome in this fic, not super but still strong enough to go against most of his opponents. Surely he will have his fare share of difficulties but He will be an S-ranked shinobi before Itachi. I myself ruled out the possibility of Ace having half of Kyuubi's chakra since this is unique to Naruto who will be the main protagonist in this fic even though the fic is Ace centric. As for Sharingan, let's just say, I wanted Ace to be a perfect blend of his former self and shinobi in terms of combat prowess. He won't use them as often as Kakashi or a normal uchiha but he will have it for emergencies, like a trump card of sorts. As for how he will get them, think of it as a parting gift from someone who's going to die. And he will be able to wield them unlike any other non-uchiha, how I will explain later. Still, if there are too many people against it, I can manage without that. Anyways thanks for so many positive reviews, follows and favourites. Read further. **

(Four and a half years later after Ace's birth)

The sight of someone destroying small boulders with his mere punches wouldn't have been odd for a village with active shinobi populace. They are afterall stronger and more resilient than normal humans. The things they could do without weapons was remarkable. However when the subject of our talk is a 4 year old kid, even though he had a lifetime of experience dealing with inhuman strength and speeds, it was a distinctly unbelievable sight for the chunins practicing on their own nearby. They have seen and few even interacted with the kid. He was a good hearted party loving person with a black hole for a stomach. Almost all of those who had this chance of communication were rather surprised by his happy go lucky behaviour. You would expect a kid with a stick up his ass if the kid was the village leader's son. For a better word, you would expect them to be more 'uchiha'-like but this kid Ace, along with his couple of uchiha friends were pretty much only exceptions to this unrealistic behaviour.

His strength, speed of strike, balance throughout the attack and intuition about the spot to hit for maximum damage was flawless. They were specifically astounded at how easily he could destroy the smaller boulders and put a huge dent on the bigger ones without facing much damage through recoil. They could swear they saw his hand and legs blackening momentarily before he strikes his targets however even if it was some astounding technique, the whole process was fast enough to evade such small details.

Ace stopped after destroying a small boulder almost his height with a fierce punch that resembled his Hiken somewhat, only without the use of fire element.

"Well?" He asked his mentor.

"I am not surprised.. I am not surprised.. I am not surprised.. Bah screw that, That last punch was frighteningly strong even by your standards. I can't believe how faster you are progressing in your strength and combat abilities. You could rival Tsunade specially with those punches of yours in a few years." His mentor replied.

Ace grinned at that. "Well I already told you I am strong even by shinobi standards and would only continue to grow with time. Added to that the technique I told you about, It works well in accord with my natural strength."

"Too bad I can't learn that technique. How awesome it would be to just let the weapons bounce off your skin because it's harder than steel." The mentor replied.

"Jealous much Kakashi-Sensei?" He teased his sensei.

"Yeah, whatever kid, you are still not immune to chakra enhanced weapons. Anyways, It's time to go home. I won't particularly like to face an enraged Kushina-san for taking you away for too long." Kakashi replied with slight shiver at imagining the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero in an angry state with her hair tendrils waving like tails and somewhat resembling the mighty Kyuubi no Yoko. Sometimes he wondered if it was her own scariness or the side effect of having the beast inside of her.

"Can't I just stay with you for a while? I don't know, I just don't wanna ... You understand right?" He asked Kakashi.

"Yeah Yeah, I do. Even though I don't know the reason why you hate them so much. I mean I can't think of any way they may have wronged you. Specially since I have known Minato-Sensei for so long now. But I won't force you to tell me. Do so whenever you are comfortable with it." Kakashi replied softly.

"It's not hate sensei, I just don't acknowledge them as my parents." 'And I doubt I ever will, maybe I should have answered to your question that time itself Roger.' Ace thought back to his time with his biological dad. He was still struggling with the right answer to his question.

"Anyways let's head back." Kakashi replied.

With that, they departed at average genin level speeds through rooftops towards Namikaze Estate. That particular technique has been useful to avoid unwanted attention through the years for Ace. Being the son of a hokage, everyone would acknowledge him as the honorable son or Namikaze-Sama. He didn't like this fact that he was being acknowledged due to his Minato's actions or status. 'Worlds changed but the human nature didn't. People here still recognize heritage above actions or behavior.' Atleast his friends understand and stand for the his beliefs. Itachi and Shisui, both of them were his best mates since almost an year now. He still remembered how he came to know Itachi and Shisui.

(An year ago)

Ace had finally decided to try his hands at the shinobi arts. Even though he was 3 years old, he knew that he's just not made for sitting quietly and gloating about his status as the so called 'Honorable Son'. It eerily reminded him of Sabo's situation. Now he truly understood his dislike for nobilities. Nor was he made for small childhood games and quirks, he was an adult since almost a decade for crying out loud. He truly tried to make some friends among few of the kids he met through his parents however many of them belonging to some prestigious clan or being a noble of some sorts had a completely different view of life. He definitely couldn't fit in with them. Additionally they were too immature for him to consider them as someone he could share his thoughts with. Not that he was the wisest of the people but he was still better than few half a decade olds.

He decided not to play with the chakra thing for a while, at least to let his body evolve a bit before trying to mould or use chakra. So besides reading up on the shinobi arts and gaining theoretical knowledge which was too boring to be frank, he decided to at least be somewhat accustomed to using weapons. He knew a bit of sword fighting and he could hit target ships with cannons if it needed be from his previous life however it was very ,very basic compared to the degree of finesse some of the members aboard the Moby Dick had in this department.

And so Ace's first target was to learn how to shoot Kunai and Shurikens with accuracy. This being a basic necessity to pass out of the academy and becoming a ninja was needed essentially in his life. Besides he knew better than to underestimate the advantage of such weapons specially taking into account that Minato could eradicate an entire army with the help of a few Kunai.

His practice mostly consisted of the use of wooden weapons for now since the real sharpened ones, even though he could handle them, would look extremely odd in the hands of a 3 year old. Currently he was practicing in a nearby park to hit few stationary targets from a great distance. It was easier said than done and with every missed target, his respect for the Snipers was increasing considerably.

"Hey guys, look what we have here, A toddler playing ninja." A voice came from around. There were around 5 kids who looked to be around 8-9 years old and most of them seemed from civilian families since Ace recognized the majority of ninja clan members and their family due to their constant contact with Minato.

'Bullies, they have no idea what they are messing with', Ace thought. "Well what do we have here, a bunch of bullies. What do you want with me? Just spit it and get the hell out of here." Ace replied coldly.

"We were looking for moving targets for our target practice you know, you will do well." The goon who seemed to be the leader of the group replied. The way he carried himself, he looked like all talks. If it will end in a confrontation, he would hardly last for few seconds.

"Not interested, now leave me alone and I shall do the same." Ace replied, not really in a mood of dealing with them. Not that he couldn't but it will result in an unwanted interrogation from Minato and Kushina regarding the events. when a hand stopped it.

"Don't fight, He did nothing to you. Why do you want to hit him?" A kid who looked around of Ace's age asked the leader of bullies. With the couple of ink black bang of hairs around his forehead and deep black eyes he looked somewhat familiar but Ace just couldn't put his finger on it.

Just then another kid, around same age as the first one and similar colored hairs and eyes came and stood by Ace's side. "Hey Shisui, haven't we seen these five here before picking up on others too, what is it that the kids do to provoke you?"

"Back Off! This doesn't concern you." A bulky guy from the bullies said annoyingly.

"Alright Alright, this has gone long enough. You two(he said, pointing towards the two on his side), I don't recall calling for your help and besides I don't even know you guys. I can handle myself just fine if they decide on going aggressive. And you, bunch of retards(he said, pointing towards the bullies) back off before I decide to do what pleases me and deal with the consequences later." Ace said with a finality in his tone

"But-" One of the guy by Ace's side tried to cut in

"Let him be Itachi. He already said he can handle them and besides Fugaku-sama will be mad if his son go around looking for violence." Shisui excalimed

"F-Fugaku? As in Fugaku Uchiha, the Uchiha clan head? You're his son?" The bulky leader asked slightly perturbed now.

"And what of it?" Itachi replied

"You! But! Why didn't you say so?" Asked the leader nervously.

"Why should I? Why does it matter to you anyways?" Itachi asked

"B-But your dad is a clan head. And that of the famed Uchiha clan at it." The leader replied

"But it's my dad who's the clan head, not me. I am me, Itachi. Uchiha Itachi" Itachi replied frustratingly

Ace was a little taken aback by this discussion. He knew by now how the clan name affects ones status in Konoha's society. And here a kid, an Uchiha, perhaps the most prestigious clan in konoha, not seemingly cares about his clan name, his father's name or the reputation it holds. He wants to make his own name irrespective of his roots. Maybe he was a little naive being just a kid but his ideals were crystal clear.

"Besides, If you care so much about who our dads are then you clearly don't know about the guy you were picking on." said Shisui in an amused tone. 'Boy, are they in for a big surprise here.' "Surely, you would think well before picking a fight with Yondaime-sama's son."

"That bit of information wasn't necessary to be released." Ace said grumpily.

"W-Wait. Y-Yondaime-sama? This kid is Namikaze Ace?" Asked the leader. And with a nod in reply, courtesy of one Shisui Uchiha, the leader of the little group was looking deathly pale now. He had no idea it would turn out to be like this. He was the son of a rich merchant in Konoha and so he used to have fun teasing the little toddlers running around but curse his luck today not only he talked to the Uchiha clan heir rudely but also tried to bully the village leader, the strongest of the shinobi's son himself.

"M-My apologies N-Namikaze sama. I didn't know it was you." The leader said, trying to show every bit of guilt he could muster. And with that being said, he ran with his tail between his legs. Seeing the leader's actions, everybody else became invisible soon enough.

"You didn't need to show your support... But, I like the way you think. You're Itachi right?" Ace asked with a more friendly behavior now

"Right. And this is Shisui(he said, pointing towards his friend). I already know about you though." Itachi said

"Oh no you don't, Let me introduce myself properly." Ace said with a smile.

And that was the day he got the best of his friends in this life. They were pretty much like Ace himself. Ok not exactly when you notice the habits and quirks but their ideologies surely matched pretty much. With them Ace finally got someone to watch his back in this world.

Then there was Kakashi. Actually there wasn't really an incident involved as a catalyst to their relationship, not directly at least. It was more or less the respect that was born in Ace's heart for Kakashi when he heard about the incident at Kanabi bridge that brought out the desire to befriend him. 'Those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.' This was one of the things Ace followed above everything else. Hell he practically died partly because he followed this rule. He was beyond enraged when Marshall D. Teach betrayed his own comrades.

Kakashi was more or less like a brother figure to him, yet at the same time, Ace held more of a sensei-type relationship with him over the time. When he told Kakashi that he wanted to train himself in shinobi arts at this age, Kakashi looked perplexed. Of course, it's not every day that a merely 4 year old kid comes to you and ask you to train him in things that even 12 years are afraid of being too much involved into. But his reasons, basically to protect those he held close to his heart proved to be a catalyst for Kakashi to accept Ace's request. Since then, Ace has been given a reason to live again. He was starting to have precious people once again. He could live to protect them and die protecting them if it needed be.

Being busy in his own musings, he didn't even realize when they reached his house. It wasn't that impressive if one thought of it as a home, a village leader resided in but still it was far from being ordinary. It was a three storey house with an open garden and some more open space at the front. The main gate was small and a little fragile but with all the seals that protected the house, courtesy of a genius in fuiinjutsu, they didn't really need very strong physical barriers to hold off unwanted beings.

When they landed in front of the main gate, Ace pushed a bit of his chakra into one of the seals on the gate and it flew open. Upon getting inside, they could see one Kushina Uzumaki already standing infront of them.

"I was expecting you sooner." She said not looking pleased at all with the current state of affairs.

"I was training and lost track of time." Ace replied emotionlessly.

Kushina sighed. "And you." She pointed towards Kakashi. "Ace never listens to me but I expected you to be a little more responsible Kakashi." Kushina said, clearly annoyed of the situation.

"Mah Mah Kushina-san. If even YOU can't make him listen to you, how do you expect me to succeed in this?" Kakashi asked.

"I am tired, I am going to find something to eat." Ace replied with a static tone.

"Not before you give me a good reason why you don't listen to me." Kushina said with a sense of authority in her voice.

" I am not interested in this conversation right now." Ace said.

"And this is your trademark reply in situations like this. I am not giving up today dattebane!" She said getting more and more annoyed now.

"I already told you not to interfere with the happenings in my life. I can live it myself safely enough." Ace replied the same way as before.

"How I not, I am your mother for god's sake. Stop acting like a spoilt brat and listen to your parents." Kushina replied clearly angered now.

"Stop imposing your authority over me, Just because you gave birth to me doesn't mean I will accept you as my mother." Ace said, even though there was no coldness in his words, there wasn't any emotions of love or affection either. With that he departed towards kitchen most probably considering the size of stomach he was born with.

Kushina was clearly angered by his words but that was not all, she felt hurt too. Ace was, for better words, distant ever since his birth. Even as a kid, he was more or less indifferent towards herself and Minato. Never spoke more than what was necessary. Never revealed his emotions, his happiness, his anger, his worries, his problems or any other phases of his life. Sarutobi assured them that this will change for the better. Still it was unsettling for a mere child to possess such coldness. For once, jiraiya commented something along the lines of him being a second coming for Orochimaru or something. They shuddered at the thought of their child being anything like the creepy jounin.

She was beginning to think that Ace was born with an attitude like that. That changed when he was seen just as normal as any other child when he was with Itachi and Shisui. She was glad that her son found a friend in the form of her best friend, Mikoto's child. And then again, soon enough, he was showing the same courtesy towards Kakashi too. On one hand, she was glad that Ace was normal, on the other, she wondered what made her son hate herself and Minato so much. No, it wasn't hate, It was indifference. It was like both of them hold no importance in his life. She couldn't quite comprehend this that well since Kakashi and Shisui, Itachi were pretty much the only ones that she saw Ace interacting with. Although, Sarutobi and Jiraiya spoke to Ace a little sometimes, she coudn't quite figure out what he thought of them.

She still wondered what could be the reason that led to this predicament. Why would Ace treat them this way. When they asked Sarutobi, he mused that there must have been some incident happening that involved Ace and ever since then, his viewpoint must have changed. But they were clueless as to what could have been that big an incident that caused Ace to not accept his own parents.

Her thoughts were cutoff when Kakashi bid her farewell and departed towards his own apartment. Sometimes, she even felt a little pang of jealousy seeing how good a friend Kakashi was with Ace. She just hoped that if not a parent, she could at least befriend Ace.

Kakashi on his own part didn't quite understand what he thought of this whole ordeal with Ace and his family. It pained him to see that his Sensei's family wasn't as bound together as he had hoped. Kushina and Minato, no doubt loved each other but Ace on the other hand wasn't that attached to them. Speaking of the little blonde, he in himself was a big mystery. He didn't quite remember when his small talks with the kid turned into a steady caring attitude for each other and then to more of a Sensei-Student relationship. Kakashi surely loved teaching the kid. It was an honor for him to teach his sensei's son, to give him back a part of what immense his sensei has done for him over the years. Still, when you go over the fact that the said kid is four years old, it sure is strange.

When he took the kid under his wing, the kid proved to be somewhat of a prodigy in regular combat. When he fought, it was as if he's doing that for years. When he punched, there was so much passion behind it. His love for fighting was uncanny. His speed and strength weren't really at that level yet but his skill and strategy surpassed even that of a chuunin. His strange techniques put him in a class of his own, specially that 'tough black skin' one. What did he call it? oh yes, Armament Haki. Kakashi has never seen anything like that ever before. What's more, once he tried to copy the technique with his sharingan but he was intrigued to see that there wasn't chakra involved through the process. When Ace spotted it, he teased him non-stop for trying to steal from an innocent little kid. It will be exciting to see what kind of future has been carved out for the little prodigy.

Ace, as usual, ate most of the food in the kitchen which wasn't nearly enough for him and hence was out in search of some more. He remembered his meeting with one of the members of the akimichi clan who pointed out a very good restaurant for meat. He loved that clan, they truly understood the love of food. Even though he could outclass most of them in terms of amount of food he could eat, they weren't fazed by this fact but in fact used to challenge him a lot of times for a competition which usually ended in Ace emptying the restaurant thoroughly. What's more, they even used to pay for him claiming that's the least they could do for losing to him. He knew that they viewed him as an idol of sorts.

He reached the restaurant soon enough but was surprised to see his friends there.

"Hmm, just as I thought." Itachi said to himself.

"You weren't the only one who predicted this." Shisui said.

"Yeah but I was confident enough to speak of my notion." Itachi said.

"Yeah Yeah, as smart as ever Itachi." Ace said dryly.

"Let me guess more, You... well to summarise, had a conflict with parents again." Itachi said.

"More or less so." Ace said.

"Alright, let's eat then. The foods on me, I got some extra pocket-money for getting praised by neighbors. Apparently I beat a Nara in Shogi." Itachi said.

"What? Not going to details about the conflict?" Ace asked surprised.

"Nah, you would tell us yourself if you want to." Shisui said as they entered the restaurant.

Ace smiled warmly at that.

They went to the counter and asked for a table. The receptionist eyed the children before a wave of recognition washed over her.

"Namikaze-sama and Uchiha-sama, we will do that right away." She said bowing her head in respect.

"Tsk! annoying titles." Ace said.

Itachi had similar thoughts in mind, he just didn't speak it out.

"BTW, beating a Nara in shogi is no small achievement. You must be really smart to pull it off." Shisui said to Itachi.

"He wasn't among the elites of the Naras. It would have been truly remarkable if it was Shikaku-san whom I beat." Itachi said.

"Don't get you panties in a bunch. The man is a genius. I don't doubt your intelligence but don't get your hopes too high too soon. One step at a time." Ace said to Itachi.

"Enough of these ramblings, how about we do something fun?" Shisui asked as they sat at the table.

Ace eyed Shisui and gave him a I know what you mean look. Itachi's eyes widened.

"Oh no you don't. The last time we tried our hands at pranks, we ended up pretty badly." Itachi said.

"That's because we tried to prank Hokage-sama because you thought we should aim for the best." Shisui said.

"Well, we did learn a thing or two from our failure." Itachi tried to defend himself.

"And that's why we are going to try again, to see how much we improved." Ace said, trying to reason with him.

When Itachi seemed to be adamant at his reasoning, they tried something they saw a little kid performing on his grandpa. The infamous Puppy Eyes no Jutsu.

"Tsk! You two aren't cute enough to prevail." Itachi said.

"Please, we thought we were friends and we will do everything to help each other." Ace tried the emotional blackmail then.

"Yeah, We thought we were friends, always. Please, do it for us." Shisui said with expression and tone similar to Ace's.

"Alright, Alright. But the plan better be good this time." Itachi said.

"So, here's the pla-" In an instant, Ace's voice was replaced by snoring sound. He fell asleep in the middle of a conversation.

Both of his buddies sweat-dropped at his antics.

"I am never getting used to to it." Shisui said.

"Likewise" Itachi murmured.

(10 minutes later)

"I was saying something..." He tapped his head trying to remember "Oh yeah, here's what we will do"

(Continued...)

**A/N: Phew, this was a long one by my standards. No action again. Well, initially I thought of rushing forward towards the Kyuubi incident and catching up with the canon timeline but it won't do good about one of the aspects of this fic. I am going to dive a little more into Ace, Itachi and Shisui's friendship. So no action again. Thanks for reading. :) **


	4. A prank gone awfully wrong!

**Disclaimer**: **I don't own Naruto or One piece and it's pretty obvious by now.**

**A/N: I am really sorry for the late update. Well no excuses this time, I accept that I was just being a lazy ass. Anyways, as I have seen, many people pointed out that Ace will become overly strong if he gets sharingan. Let me tell you in advance, Ace will be strong in this fic. Not Super and definitely not Godlike but he will be a fearsome opponent for anyone. Besides, as I have explained, Sharingan will only be a trump card for Ace and will not affect his way of battling. Anyways, I have made up my mind and sorry if it disappoints you. Now about weapons, I haven't decided on one yet but I will definitely consider the Bo I thought of this story, I once considered giving Ace a certain famous fire type zanpaktou but that would definitely be overkill :P.I am thinking over a nick and decided to keep the original if I run out of ideas. So please suggest something if you can about it. About his hair, well let's just say it's something I personally prefer :P. Also, Ace will realize what a mistake he's making by shunning away his parents and this will happen soon. So, stay tuned. **

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It was a fine summer morning. The weather was slightly breezy but the sun was shining brightly otherwise. As expected from a village with forest surrounding a lot of its perimeter as well as greenery spread throughout the vast horizon, there were constant sounds of chirping of birds and animals' voices. If one would watch this sight from a particular height, they wouldn't be able to not be impressed by the spectacle that Konoha's beauty was. The Hokage's mountain was famous for showing this scenery.

"I am still sleepy." Ace said to his friends standing beside him. It wasn't that he didn't like seeing this Konoha at its best. NO, far from it, he was starting to love Konoha and its natural beauty. He accepted this place as much of a home as Moby Dick now. It's just that he wasn't particularly a morning person and sure this sightseeing could wait, couldn't it?

"It was YOU who convinced me to be a helping hand in this, don't act all lazy now. If we want to pull it off we have to plan each and every step with precision." Itachi said trying to convince Ace to get his mind back into action.

" Oh come on Mr. Perfectionist, we have already outlined our plan and the details have been discussed yesterday. Do you want me to make a report or a blue print of sorts on this?" Ace asked, trying to prove his point.

"But you haven't taken into account the outcomes of all possible steps throughout the detours. We have yet to discuss all the What If's. If we are going to do it, we will be in full control of this all the way through." Itachi said.

Ace looked at Shisui hoping to get some help with the argument. "Hey don't drag me into your little lovers' spat." Shisui said in a protective manner.

"Arrgh, You!" Ace said frustatingly.

"Alright, that's enough. We have a clan to visit." Itachi said.

(15 Mins Later)

'Tak!... Tak!... Tak!... Tak!... CREAK!'

"Watch your step Ace, they have good eyes doesn't mean they don't have good hearing." Itachi said cautiously.

"Don't blame me. How is it my fault that there are so many wooden twigs lying in here. I told you we should have preferred the opening through that marshy terrain." Ace said in his argument.

"Don't be an idiot. Even a slight bit of mud around the compound wall would have given away the fact that someone got in through there. That path was really risky." Itachi said trying to prove his point.

"Yeah well that's the thing. They would never expect that someone could take the risk of entering through there. Underneath the underneath, Itachi." Ace said.

"Alright, we shouldn't cry over what we could have done. Let's face the challenge ahead. Besides, didn't I tell you to use those 'animal' names of ours. I saw those masked guys use these names. It's really cool, trust me." Shisui said.

"There's the opening Crow, you go first." Itachi said looking at Shisui. Ahead of them was a large wall that looked like made up of some kind of white stone. From their previous inspection, they found this opening in the form of a stone block half broken. The hole wasn't that large but large enough for children of their age to pass through. Ace mused that since all the surrounding buildings belonged to branch house, the Hyuugas didn't really care enough to repair the hole.

Shisui got in and inspected the insides." All clear. Get in" Shisui said in a whispered voice.

"I am going in now Phoenix. Don't do anything stupid when alone." Itachi said to Ace.

"Whatever Weasel, just don't get stuck in the whole." Ace said.

Itachi merely grunted in response.

"Phoenix, get in." came Itachi's voice from the inside.

(10 mins Later)

"We are at the checkpoint. Ace, you got the stuff?" Itachi asked.

Ace brought a bag down from his shoulders. He picked out a certain orange book from inside. There were three copies in total of the book in the bag. Added to that, there were paint buckets and paint brushes.

"Here, these are the books and this is the paint. Pick up a brush and bucket each and go mad." Ace said while grinning.

"I still don't get it. What's the big deal about women without clothes?" Shisui asked innocently.

"Don't fret over it right now. You will understand when you are older." Ace said with a wicked smirk.

"Then how do you know about all of this...this women business?" Shisui asked, not quite satisfied with the answer.

"Oh that? I practically live with a pervert." Ace said, remembering about Kakashi.

"What's a pervert?" Shisui asked again.

"Not now Crow. Even I don't know what's so special about naked women but I do know that it get's unusual reactions from older males. Let's just finish this prank and get this over with." Itachi said.

'Look at me, spoiling little kids and turning them into perverts. Meh, they will learn it anyways once they are older.' Ace thought.

"Meet me at the rendezvous point. Remember, you have one hour to spread as much madness as you can. Go wild." Ace said and departed with a sprint.

The other two wordlessly departed.

(An hour later)

Itachi was waiting at the decided spot. About a minute or two later Ace and Shisui were seen getting back from the inside, happily chatting with each other.

"Pheonix, Crow report." Itachi said in a monotone, trying to copy his father whom he say ordering around the Konoha police force.

"Well, let's see, I completely dominated the western part of the compound in 45 mins and got together with Pheonix to work on a masterpiece around the mainhouse." Shisui said

" Northern part of the compound will hardly recognize their own walls anymore. And then, as Crow said, I worked at the masterpiece along with him." Ace said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

"As expected, it was me who covered the rest of the area. I just hope the mission was a succ-" before Itachi could complete his sentence, he was halted by what he witnessed from a nearby house. A middle aged man was flying in the air due to propulsion from what looked like a jet stream of blood from his nose.

"Success!" Ace completed the sentence for him cheerily.

"Alright, let's get out of here." Shisui said.

(5 Mins Later)

They were happily walking towards their proposed exit. Ace was grinning madly. This was truly a day to remember for his life. He couldn't remember the last time he had so much fun. These four and a half years were awfully boring for him, particularly considering that he used to sail through the Grand line and the New world. Those places were never boring. Far from it, they were probably the most unpredictable and interesting place that could ever be. Constant dangers and life threatening situations, constant attacks by enemy pirates and marines. Then there was the fact that every island in itself was an adventure waiting to be undertaken.

But here, ever since he had been born again, he hardly had any adventures at all. How could he? He was supposed to be a kid after all. That was one the things he hated most from his rebirth. And now that he has friends, his nakama again to accompany him on these adventures, he would get the best out of it.

Itachi and Shisui were enjoying themselves as much too. Just out of the corner of his eyes, Itachi noticed that Shisui was kinda spacing out. He seemed to be looking somewhere in particular. Itachi followed his line of sight and where it ended was a tall tower type structure, maybe the tallest in the whole compound. In a moment, Itachi realized what Shisui was planning. He was planning to go back and paint that tower too.

"Oh no no no, we are through with this. Let's get back now." Itachi said.

"Aww, don't be like that. This tower can be seen through the whole compound. If we can paint it, this prank will be a massive success. Besides, everyone is busy holding their noses to prevent any blood loss. It will be an easy one." Shisui said, trying to convince Itachi.

"I don't think that's such a good idea either. We have had a lot of fun today, next time we do something like this, I will let you plant the details, alright?" Ace said.

"Not you too Ace. You know we can pull it off." Shisui said pouting.

"Shisui, we are overest-" Itachi said, trying to reason with Shisui but was cut off in mid speech by him.

"Fine, if you guys don't want to come, I can pull it off on my own." with that said, Shisui departed towards the tower.

Shisui saw the tower closing in. He had it all planned out. He could see two girls chatting around near the tower entrance. He put some paint in a small cup over a nearby wall. He had a small rock in his hand. He tried to get as close to the tower entrance as possible without being seen. From there, he threw the rock and aimed for the cup. The cup fell due to the impact and the paint spread over the ground. The girls noticed this and went on to check what was happening.

Shisui took the opportunity and got inside the tower. He proceeded towards the top as fast as possible. When he reached the top, he noticed that there was a huge bell hanging there. It was a bell tower he concluded. Doing away all the other thoughts, he started painting the outer walls cautiously through an opening in the form of a huge window. He was done in about 10 minutes or so.

Happy with his artwork, he went on to pack up and get the hell out of there. He picked up the bucked and went for the brush which was kept at the window sill. He reached for it but was distracted when a pitch black crow flew past him. The brush fell from the sill. Shisui noticed it and froze. The brush was going to hit a guy who just arrived below the tower. He cursed his damn luck for it. There was no way he could get out safely without blowing his own cover through this. He tried to think of some way, somehow but his mind just didn't work.

When the brush was a few meters away from the person below, a stone hit and it changed its projectile. Instead of hitting its mark, the stone fell in a heap of sand nearby instead. The sound made was meager and the guy didn't notice it.

"You didn't think we would leave you alone did you?" came a voice he completely recognized.

"Ace... Itachi, you guys were here the whole time?" Shisui said, glad that someone was there to watch his back.

"Of course. We knew you would make mistakes if you were alone." Itachi said with a small smile.

"Hey!" Shisui replied to the accusation.

"Anyways, that's one hell of a job you did there. Let's get out of here now." Ace said looking towards the artwork.

They all ran towards the downwards flight of the stairs. Shisui being all giddy that he was saved, didn't notice that there was a cylindrical metal piece lying on the ground. He slipped on it and his hand hit straight to what looked like a lever of sorts.

For a moment, nothing happened. The three let out a sigh of relief. But it wasn't their lucky day today certainly. After about 3-4 second, the bell rang!

In a few seconds, the whole area around the tower was swarming with white eyed men and women. That was the moment, the kids knew they were in deep trouble.

"Alright, we have to stay calm and think. Only then we can get out of this." Itachi said trying to calm down their nerves.

"Have you looked down yet? There are atleast 10-15 of them?" Shisui said in a panicked voice.

Ace was too busy thinking what to do and didn't add anything. Just then he noticed a rope from the top of the window going somewhere.

"Itachi, Shisui, grab onto me tight. We are getting out of here." Ace said in a serious voice.

Ace stripped his shirt and hung it on top of the rope. Luckily, they were too high up for any of the people down to notice their faces. Itachi and Shisui realized what he was going to do.

"Have you gone nuts? If we fall, we die." Shisui said panicking.

"Just hold onto me and trust me. I am getting us out of here for sure and safely." Ace said looking in the eyes of the two of them.

Ace bended a small metal sheet lying nearby with his bare hands and tuck it under his shirt. This will prevent the shirt from tearing due to abrasion and provide a smooth surface to slide.

Itachi and Shisui followed his lead and clung on to him tightly. Ace's sight flickered down to notice the height they were at. He knew it was now or never. With everything in place, he jumped from the window with Itachi and Shisui clinging onto him.

They travelled at a really fast pace through the rope and reached the end. Thankfully they were far enough from the populace to get a hold of their bearings but not far enough to outrun them.

"We got this far, all we have to do now is run for our dear lives. However before that, wrap your shirt around your face to cover it completely except your eyes. We don't want them to recognize any of us, got it?" Ace said with all the seriousness in his voice.

They did just the thing. They ran as fast as they could with few people following them. It wasn't a very pleasant experience but they finally outran them. They didn't know how far they were but they knew they were somehow out of the Hyuuga clan compound. They were panting heavily when they finally stopped. Only Ace was looking less fazed even after all the running and dodging.

"Phew! that was close." Itachi said panting.

"You don't say." Ace said sitting on a small boulder.

The area they were in looked more or less like a jungle. There were tall trees all around. They couldn't recognize the place they were at but at least they were out of trouble now.

"It was all my fault. If only I could-" Shisui said, feeling guilty about his stubbornness. But Ace cut him off.

"Shisui, Remember this forever. A man once told me this and I still hold this ideology close to me. When are with a nakama for something, when we are a team, it's NEVER my fault or your fault. It's always our fault." Ace said. This was one of the thing he admired most about Whitebeard. Comrades are family and family is above all else.

Itachi and Shisui were touched by the words. Ace truly understood the depth of companionship.

"Nice little speech you said there Namikaze Ace. But I am afraid you have to cut it short." a voice said from behind a tree. The three of them froze.

"You didn't think you could outrun the Shinobi did you? No matter how fast and clever you kids are, and I admit you indeed are, you can't get away from us. Time to take a little stroll to the Hokage's office. I am sure your dad will want to hear about this little expedition of yours Ace. Never thought the Uchiha kids will accompany too. Subashi, restrain them." The guy said to his colleague. There were two of them. Ace knew it's over the moment they identified him.

The shinobis went on to tie their hands with ropes and pick them up to take them to the Hokage tower but before they could carry them, they fell limp due to a couple of chops on the back of their necks.

"Thought you could use a little helping hand." A man said looking at his hands through which he chopped the two shinobis. He was a short guy with brown hairs and eyes of the same colour. He looked to be in his mid twenties. His face wore a gentle smile the whole time. He was dressed in standard chuunin flak jackets and ANBU pant.

Ace couldn't quite understand what was going on. One moment they were tied by the ropes and were about to be carried away, the other, they were free again when three well aimed kunais cut through their ropes. Ace was a little weary about the situation.

"Who are you?" Ace asked taking a battle stance seeing the stranger. As far as the two Hyuugas were concerned, he at least knew them from passing by but this man was a total stranger.

"Oh me? I am just a fan of good ol' pranks. You guys did a very good job btw." the man replied slightly widening his smile. "With all the hard work you put into the prank, I couldn't just let you get caught and spoil the mood." he replied with a warm smile again.

Itachi and Shisui immediately relaxed in his company seeing that he meant no harm but was in fact saving them being their fan and all however Ace was getting this strange vibe off of him. He couldn't quite put his finger on it but there was something, just something from which he could sense that he should be running away from here, but he trusted his friends' judgment over his, for now.

"Um, shinobi-san, we are sort of lost in this forest. Can you show us the way back to the village?" Shisui asked.

"Sure, follow me. I was going to anyways. Meanwhile tell me all about how you planned and pulled it off. Just one more repeat of the performance you showed today and I will be begging for your autographs the next time." the man replied.

The four of them travelled through the woods at a medium pace. They were walking through the grounds since the kids didn't really know tree hopping technique. Itachi and most of the time Shisui were briefing the man about their planning and execution this morning. The man was promptly listening to them and adding a few words of his own. Ace's suspicions were beginning to fade away when he saw few houses just up ahead and it was confirmed that they were around the village.

'SQUELCH'

The sound of kunai hitting flesh was heard and Ace's blood ran cold when he saw Itachi lying dead on the ground in a pool of blood and the same man he thought he was being paranoid about holding the bloodied kunai.

But the image just faded away as if it never even happened. Realization hit Ace and he knew what exactly must have happened.

**Observation Haki**

Without any second thought, Ace hardened his arm with Armament Haki and blocked the kunai that indeed was about to do the deed. There was a momentary look of surprise on the man's face.

"To think that you were able to block my attack." the man said with slight amazement in his voice.

Itachi and Shisui instantly realized what was happening and produced as much distance as possible between themselves and the man.

The surprise faded away just as quickly and was replaced by a vicious grin on the man's face. "It doesn't matter anyways. The three of you will die here today and right now."

"No we won't. Itachi, Shisui run towards the village and inform someone as soon as possible. I will try to hold him off meanwhile." Ace said though he wasn't that sure about his chances.

"Ace, don't be a fool. You alone are no match for him. Besides, we are far off from the village to pull it off." Itachi said with a hint of hopelessness in his voice.

"What are you talking about? Look there are houses right there, I am sure you will-" Ace said trying to point towards a direction.

"Ace... there are no houses there" Shisui said with fear reflecting in his voice.

Seeing their dilemma, the man laughed loudly. Ace was extremely confused now and suddenly, the vision of houses he was seeing just faded away revealing that there were just trees in his vicinity. Then it hit him. Genjutsu!

"I knew the moment I saw you that you suspect me of something. I felt it best to let you assume that you were being paranoid. The false sense of security you were feeling when you saw those houses close by made it possible. I could have caught you off guard and killed you three swiftly. Too bad, you were destined for a much worse death." the man said in sweet voice.

"B-But why? W-Why do you want to kill us" Shisui asked, stuttering since death was so close to him now.

"Why you ask? A mission was the reason for most of the part. However there is a personal reason too." the man said sneering at Ace now.

Ace took a thoughtful look for a second and then replied.

"Let me guess, it has something to do with my surname?" Ace asked

"That monster of a dad of yours killed the only person I cared about. What was her fault? All she wanted was to raise enough money to keep us feeding. She was going on just fine doing small B and C ranked missions once or twice a month in order to maintain our finances. That was until my sister fell ill. The disease was a fatal one. The only cure was too costly for us to afford." his eyes were slightly moist by now but he continued nonetheless.

" That's when she decided to join the frontlines in the war just for one day. Only a day and she would get paid in money equivalent to an S-ranked mission. I was so happy that everything's going to be alright after that day. I waited eagerly for her but she never came that night. I waited and waited for a couple more days but all my hopes were going down. I just couldn't stop myself then, I went on towards the Iwa shinobi camp to search for her, thought maybe she's trying to raise a little more money for future. Imagine my grief when I saw a kunai impaled through her heart on the battlefield. I cried and cried but it was useless. It couldn't bring back my mom could it?"

"That was the moment I decided that I will show her killer what it feels to lose someone who meant the world for them. I got the air that it was the Yondaime who used that disgusting flash jutsu of his to kill the whole frontline battalion. Today is the day I will finally have my revenge." He said with murder in his eyes.

It was all too nostalgic to Ace. The sad and tragic tales, all relating to his father. Proving what a monster they were. Roger, he could understand, was a pirate and an outlaw. They had to do their fair share of killing in order to survive. He had done the same thing being a pirate. But Minato, he was a hero in Konoha for singlehandedly ending the last war. Frankly, he respected the man's strength. That's why when he became Hokage, Ace was pleased. He knew the man got what he deserved.

But seeing this side of the story, he should have expected this. There always are two sides of a coin. Every cloud does have a silver lining but it does not mean it will overcome its entirety. A war is more or less the clash of two ideologies. They battle to prove themselves right. But, no matter who wins, it brings suffering to both in the end.

If the people used to tell him that they hate Roger, then they hate his ideology. That's doesn't necessarily mean that the ideology is wrong. It's like Light and Darkness, Left and Right, Yin and Yang. There's no right and no wrong in matters like this. This was a perspective, that rivaled that of Minato's. He must have thought that quickly ending the war means the end of bloodshed. It must have pained his heart too to kill so ruthlessly. Ace held respect for the man for being strong hearted.

Ace sighed. "I know you won't believe me but I think I understand your pain. Losing someone close to your heart is ... I can't put it in words." He said remembering when they lost Sabo."But, I can't let you kill my friends. And I won't go down without a fight either."

He then turned towards Itachi and Shisui. "Get out of here. Try to find anyone, just anyone from the village and inform them. Even if we are far from the village, nothing changes. I will try to hold him off for a while, I just got an ace up my sleeve." Ace said referring to his newly acquired Haki.

"It's easy for you to say but wasn't it you who said it's always US in a team, never YOU and ME. We are going to help you no matter what" Shisui said. Itachi agreed with him without a shred of doubt in his mind.

Ace sighed again. He looked down at the grass below. His blonde bangs covered his eyes. He took a deep breath and looked up. But when he looked up, there was steely resolve in those purple eyes. Resolve to survive and protect his loved ones.

"Itachi, it's most likely that there will be weapons thrown in this battle. You pick em up and fire in the whole. Remember, you DO NOT try to engage him, you just do whatever you can with the weapon. Shisui, you will be watching my back. Don't try to hit the enemy, just try your best t defend any fatal blows aimed for you and possibly for me." With that, Ace ran towards the shinobi with a burst of speed.

"You think you can challenge me brat? Let's see what you got." the man said and brought out few kunais and shurikens to aim for them.

Ace saw the projectiles approaching, he tried hard to feel where they will go with his observation Haki and with mild success, noticed that himself and Shisui will be able to dodge them but not Itachi. He ran towards Itachi and blocked most of the kunais with his **Armament Hardening** over both of his arms. The kunais couldn't get past the tough skin and fell limply to the ground. A kunai grazed past his shoulder to produce a small trickle of blood but it wasn't time to ponder over it.

The shinobi was surprised to see this strange technique. Taking the advantage of the moment of surprise, Ace picked a kunai for future use. Itachi followed the lead and collected the others. He started aiming for the man. Although the hits were on target, they were too slow for the supposed jounin. He easily dodged them and proceeded forward to engage Ace in a fierce taijutsu battle.

Even though Ace's blow were hard due to his use of armament between few of his punches and kicks, they weren't fast enough to cause any problem to the shinobi. He easily dodges pretty much all of them and was turning out to be the victor in the a lot of his strikes that were aimed for Ace were batted away by Shisui, he was fast enough to injure both of them without subsequent backlash.

Itachi kept trying to help Ace and Shisui by throwing Kunais, even rocks he picked up from the ground in the hope of distracting him as much as possible. Ace continued to use his armament and observation once in a while but it wasn't working really well for them. He wasn't fast enough to implement armament effectively in his taijutsu style and with observation haki being just awakened, he really didn't think it was working out that well. Shisui wasn't faring much either.

They were all bloodied and battered and in a really bad shape however the shinobi was hardly injured except few scratches here and there and a bloodied nose, courtesy of a strong punch of steel.

The shinobi, seeing that this really is just a waste of time, made some distance between himself and the three. "I must praise you for your battle prowess. You three did a pretty good job, in fact you were able to draw blood from me. Your teamwork is just superior. However, this ends here." the man said.

He started making handsigns. Now Ace knew that this is some serious trouble. They were practically dummies in ninjutsu.

**Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu(Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique) **

The man yelled and a large fireball proceeded to burn them up. 'If only I had Mera Mera no Mi' Ace thought but still somehow pushed them and himself out of the way and just when he and Shisui were about to get up, Itachi pulled both of their heads on to the ground. Ace didn't account for the earth spears that were hidden in the large fire. Oh this could hurt a lot if they made contact. But then he wondered how did Itachi react so fast? When he looked at him, he understood the reason. Instead of the usual black ones he was used to to seeing, there were two tomoes in each of Itachi's eyes.

'Sharingan' Ace thought.

But they didn't have time to think over since more of the earth spears were approaching them. The somehow just got out of the way and with mutual agreement ran as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

However, as fast as they were, they knew that they couldn't reach their destination. But suddenly, out of the blue moon, Ace realized something. He got a necklace out which was hidden under his shirt. It was all beads just like he wore in his previous life except there was a miniature version of Hiraishin kunai in the middle that Minato put in their for emergencies. Emergencies like this!

If he used it, they could get out of this alive. He and his dear friends, all of them. Ace never really thought of the man to be his father. He closed himself off from the relationship that was of parents and children. He never really wanted Minato's help with anything but this was less about him and more about the safety of his friends. He couldn't let his selfish reasons be a part of this.

He made his decision. Itachi and Shisui were about to run away when he stopped them by putting hands on their shoulders.

"What are you doing Ace? I thought we all agree now that we are no match for him." Itachi asked.

"I know. But I can call someone who's more than a match for him." Ace said calmly. He grabbed the kunai and pulled it out of the necklace. He went on to push some chakra into it as a result of which, it expanded. Within that time, the jounin was already in front of the three. Ace eyed the kunai for a second and threw it on the ground. It got stuck and for a second nothing happened. The jounin identified the kunai and was slightly nervous by now. Seeing that nothing was happening, he looked relieved and started weaving handsigns again. However before he could finish, there was a yellow flash and a familiar blonde with blue eyes was standing just over where the kunai was embedded.

The three kids let out a sigh of relief together. They were saved.

Minato was confused for a moment. One second he was sitting in his office enjoying a very fine tea a customer brought from Ta no Kuni while his Kage Bunshin was doing all his paperwork and the next, he felt the momentary flicking of chakra in the kunai he attached to Ace's necklace. He disappeared as soon as possible with a flash. When he reappeared at the marker, what he saw made his blood boil. He saw the bloody form of his only son and the two of Ace's friends lying on the ground panting heavily and a shinobi who clearly wasn't from Konoha in front of them and all hell broke loose.

**A/N: Well, I hope you guys like it. I am constantly trying to make the chaps as long as possible and so far succeeded with each chapter being longer than before. Personally, I think 10k words is good enough for a chapter. So I will try to reach that mark asap. Thanks again for reading. :)**


	5. A legend in the making

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto and OP. It's not that hard to realize by now, is it?**

**A/N: First things first, I am not going to skip the entire kyuubi fiasco and Ace's life until now. Everything will be explained and discussed but in flashbacks. Reason? I wanted Ace to kick some asses by now. I was getting restless, so here he is, as good as ever. Now to answer the next question, about Ace joining the Akatsuki or not, not telling. You will just have to see. I already took away a lot of surprise by asking about possibly Sharingan no Ace. Last but not the least, I am really happy to see how much the story has been liked. It means a lot to me considering that this was my first time writing some fiction. A whole hearted thanks to all the readers. **

'Scratch... Scratch ... Scratch ... Screech ... Scratch'

'Yes, it seems that I have finally picked the momentum somehow.'

'Scratch ...Scratch'

'Its just few minutes away. I have to stay calm and composed.'

'Scratch ...Scratch'

'Not bad. Not bad at all. This is just like a dream come true.'

'Scratch ... Scratch .. Scratch ... Scratch .. Scratch ... Scratch ..'

'Finally!'

He just couldn't believe it. He had finally achieved this after a long long time. It was one of his lucky days maybe. No, luck simply isn't good enough to deal with something like this. This was one of his biggest nightmares ever since he accepted the responsibilities.

Sarutobi Hiruzen, 'The Professor' or known as 'Kami no Shinobi' when he was at his absolute prime, has finally overcome his biggest nightmare.

Paperwork!

It all started with signing the documents for his establishment as the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato and is still going on and on ever since. This was probably worse than a nightmare. Nightmares go away when you wake up but paperwork doesn't.

He had gotten rid of the living nightmare once but curse the Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze, Hiruzen had to take up the duty once again. If only Minato hadn't die that terrible night. If only he had let someone else perform the Death Reaper Seal. If only he was here to take up his rightful role as a Hokage.

He was still mourning the unexpected death of the young prodigious Kage. He was an absolute genius. Ever so smart, mature and wise beyond his age. The whole village wept for the demise of the young leader.

Village aside for a second, he left his legacy behind. Two orphaned sons to be exact. The ever so charismatic, Namikaze Ace and the little ball of infinite stamina, Namikaze Naruto. And just like his father, the former turned out to be a prodigy among the prodigies.

Joining the academy at the age of 5 was fine. He was the result of Konoha's two most powerful shinobi after all. He still remembered the first day when Ace came to him asking to be enrolled in the shinobi academy. The little kid was anything but enthusiastic at that time, not that it was his fault. What would you expect from someone who's parents died in front of his own eyes.

The only reason he allowed Ace to join the academy so early was because of the resolve he held in those eyes. The resolve to protect his precious people and most of all, his little brother.

Rest was merely a legend in its making. When it came to academy studies and theoretical knowledge, Ace wasn't someone whom you would call a genius. Unlike maybe a couple or three of his classmates, he wasn't exactly a walking encyclopedia. He understood the important things and knew how to apply them and that's what matters in the end.

But when it came to shinobi arts and combat strategies, he was somewhat of a marvel. Defeating his peers was, to some extent, a warm-up for him. His true battle instincts and strategies used to come out when he battled his chuunin instructors. What's more, halfway through his graduation and he could beat them in a spar.

In the meantime, everyone understood that keeping such a talent in the academy was just a waste of time. They did the only thing they thought was right and that led Ace to graduate from the academy within just a year.

His team in itself was probably the strongest ever since the Three Legendary Sannins. His companionship with the young Uchiha heir Itachi Uchiha and his peer Shisui Uchiha was just unbreakable. That led Hiruzen to bypass his former idea of introducing a female in their team and declaring the three as a team instead.

Ever since it was decided that the three will be forming a team, his office was swarmed with horde of jounins requesting to take up the mantle of their sensei.

Who wouldn't want to have the Hokage's son and the geniuses from the village's most revered clan. Even one of his elites, Hatake Kakashi proposed to give up his ANBU duties in order to teach the three, most probably due to the brotherly bond the two shared. But in the end, one stood out among all the others and he gave the responsibilities to one Mikoto Uchiha.

It wasn't really about how powerful a shinobi she was, not that she was any less in that department. It was more or less about the bond she would be able to withhold with the three. She was a mother to one of them and just like an aunt to the other. For the third, namely Ace, She was a connection of sorts to Kushina. Being a very good friend of hers, she could help him overcome the traumatic incident.

The choice proved to be a very good one too. The team's mission rate was perfect. Never a failure. They performed the C and D ranked mission with ease with ease. Even the couple of B ranks they took, they managed to stay mostly unharmed throughout.

Now if this team wasn't fit for a promotion, Hiruzen didn't know which was. The team was probably the last to receive a field promotion. Later the system of-course was simply abolished due to peaceful times.

From then on, the team never looked back, particularly Ace. He was deemed worthy of being a Jounin by the age of 9 by more than half of the shinobi populace of the village.

With his promotion and resulting resignation from the team, he exponentially increased his training. Now, by the age of 13, he was an elite Jounin and is known to be a S-ranked shinobi throughout the elemental nations.

If he were to analyze Ace for his battle prowess, Ace was probably one of the most unpredictable ninja. His calm and composed demeanor throughout most of the missions, the aura he used to carry in possibly hostile environments and his strange powers were a testament to his uncanny strength as a shinobi.

In terms of taijutsu, Ace could possibly give Gai a run for his money when going all out against each other. His speed was great and his strength was rivaling that of Tsunade by now. This was indeed a scary opponent for anyone. However that trump card of his was probably his biggest advantage.

The ability to turn your arms into something harder than steel at will was an ability to be afraid of. He didn't know how this was even possible but he knew that this was one of those things only Ace could do. Added to that was his ability to predict his opponents' moves.

The ability was so much similar to that of the Sharingan and yet so different. From what Ace told him, he couldn't speed up his perception through this ability but rather predict the future scenario if an attack hits. A part of it was inferior to the Sharingan however the other was so much superior to the great Doujutsu.

Ace wasn't really a genjutsu type per se when it came to creating one but he was extremely efficient at disrupting it. He didn't know how but ultimately Ace was almost immune to most of them.

One unexpected talent Ace possessed was that in Fuinjutsu. He never really thought Ace would be the type but considering that Ace was an Uzumaki from his mother's side, this shouldn't have been that big a surprise. He could understand seals upto a particular level of complicacy and create few too. From the looks of it, Ace didn't really dedicated too much time in honing his Fuinjutsu skills but he still was more than decent in it.

Ninjutsu was well, somewhat of a second nature to Ace. Now Hiruzen knew that being the chakra house Ace was, thanks to his Uzumaki genes, he would excel in the art. But that was hardly the reason. What left Hiruzen gobsmacked was fire.

Ace showed him what he could do with fire when he became a chuunin.

He still remembered that day.

(Flashback)

_It was a casual spar between a grandpa and his adoptive grandson._

_Well, a casual spar where the grandson was bleeding from most of his body parts. Scratches present through the bottom part of the leg. A broken and profusely bleeding knee. Cuts and abrasive wounds all over his bare torso and a profusely bleeding forehead._

_"You have already proved your battle strength Ace. I assure you your training is paying off. We don't need to drag this battle any further." Sarutobi said. He was worried about the kid. This casual spar, Ace refused to take it casually as it was supposed to be and clearly appeared to be going all out since a while now. _

_From the looks of it, Ace needed some medical attention and that too quickly before he could even move a finger. But he just refused to stand down. Curse that unending stamina of his._

_"Not yet Hokage-Sa ... Jiji. I can still go on. It has hardly been a few hours now."Ace said panting heavily. His voice was slightly strained too. Hiruzen smiled at the use of the suffix. Ace was ever the polite one among his whole family. He personally had to request him to use a more familiar suffix when not on duty._

_" Let's call it off for now. You have shown all of your cards anyways. What more, you made me bleed a little. That's a remarkable feat for someone your age." Hiruzen said showing him a trickle of blood dripping from his shoulder. Every drop of it was worth. It made him proud of the young prodigy in front of him._

_Ace took a distant look for a second. Hiruzen suspected he was planning to give up maybe but apparently that wasn't the reason. A huge grin setteled on Ace's face. He was definitely up to something._

_" You said that I have shown you all of my cards, are you sure about that jiji?" Ace said with a hint of glee. Now what's the kid planning? A new taijutsu stance? A new jutsu perhaps? Let's see._

_Ace took long and deep breathes for a little amount of time trying to compose himself. When he calmed his breath down completely, he straightened himself up and extended an arm to his right._

_For a second his arm just froze there in peace(A/N:Irony). What happened then is still a mystery to him. His arm caught fire!_

_No. That isn't how you describe it. His arm became fire but, what? No handsigns, no indication of using any ninjutsu and his arm just became fire? How in the seven hell is that even possible._

_But before he could comment on this strange occurance, what he continued to see, amazed him even more. The fire that his arm was continued to extend and spread and before he had time to close his mouth shut from the happenings, Ace's right arm completely became fire._

_"Brace yourself Jiji." Ace said with an even larger grin than before._

_**'Hiken!(Fire Fist)' **__He roared._

_The big fire that his arm was continued to extend outwards and with a motion resembling a punch, the fire extended towards Hiruzen in a huge beam of inferno. He hardly had any time to react to the tremendous attack that was rushing towards him at supersonic speeds. He barely managed to get out of the area but his right arm wasn't so lucky._

_The whole arm up to the shoulder had first and second degree burns all over it. His heart was beating fast from all that happened within that minute. What was it exactly? How is that even possible. Hiruzen, being 'The Professor' himself couldn't explain the phenomena. _

_He looked back to see the aftermath of the attack and was shocked to see the destructive power it held. Around a Hundred of the target dummies along with the wall at the end of the ground were all completely annihilated. But that wasn't the end, it looked as if the punch travelled further than that and destroyed a huge stretch of forest beyond the walls were all but ashes._

_"Err, it seems like I went a little overboard with that one. Sorry for destroying the forest like that jiji. I would request Tenzo-san to help you with the repairs as a personal favor to me." He replied sheepishly._

_But Hiruzen was hardly listening to that. _

_"Tell me everything about this flame thing, Now!" Hiruzen said_

(Flashback Ends)

Ace admitted to him that he had the power since a while now but didn't use it in actual combat. Fire was a difficult element to control and he feared that getting rash about it will lead him to hurt his own teammates.

Evidently Ace held such a control over the element of fire that would make even the most powerful of the shinobis jealous of the kid. He took fire affinity to a whole new level never ever seen before. What with his second affinity being wind that works in conjunction with fire, he was an absolute powerhouse in ninjutsu.

Hiruzen just hoped that Ace would pass on the legacy to Naruto. The two were practically inseparable.

One of his biggest regret was not being able to keep Naruto in the village. After the events of the Kyuubi's attack, Ace and Naruto both were admitted into the orphanage for a while. Apparently Hiruzen convinced that Naruto wasn't strong enough to protect himself as of now and hence requested Ace to keep the secret of Naruto and Ace being brothers from everyone.

Ace was reluctant in the beginning but remembering the attack on him and his ffriends by the Iwa shinobi a while ago, he made up his mind to go forward with Hiruzen's idea. He didn't like the idea but it was for the best.

Being in the orhpanage, Ace was somewhat of a celebrity however Naruto was constantly being neglected by everyone because of obvious reasons. When Naruto grew up a bit, the neglect turned into hatred and ill-treatment. Ace just couldn't see this anymore and he took Naruto away from the village after that, never to bring him back even by now. Ace stayed a shinobi of Konoha though.

There was a huge uproar due to this in the council. The civilian council was happy that the 'Demon' was away from them now however few of the shinobi council members were disappointed since their potential weapon was taken away from the village. The feud settled as a result of a huge amount of Killing Intent being emitted from Hiruzen himself but it was just a temporary solution.

Consequently the little child was forgotten by most and the whole village was at peace.

Hiruzen was brought out of the nostalgia when a heard a thump from around his table. Then he saw them, the bane of all leaders. Three huge pile of paperwork neatly stocked and deposited by his secretary in front of him.

"What? I thought the paperwork was over for today." Hiruzen asked slightly surprised.

"It's from Danzo-sama and your advisors, Hokage-sama. They said that it was something pertaining to the recent happenings in the Uchiha clan."

That had him a little worried. He just hoped that Ace will be able to accept the fiasco that's bound to happen. But he knew the boy's will was strong. He will survive.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

(Somewhere in the forest of Hi no Kuni)

**'Hiken(Fire Fist)'**

He kept the attack underpowered however this provided a boost to the speed of the attack. The result was instantaneous. The horde of bandits in front of him were reduced to nothing.

He retreated his arm back and adjusted his hat with still burning index and middle fingers. He was dressed black ANBU pants and a short belt with a large red "A" on the silver buckle over his right hip, but left it unfastened and threaded the free end along the back of his pant. He had a golden bracelet tied in his left hand. There was a necklace made up of pure red beads around his neck with a small tri-pronged kunai shaped pendent in the middle.

Added to that, he wore black boots and an orange hat with two blue smileys, one frowning and one smiling, and a string of red beads sitting above the rim. Two long orange side straps hung down sides of his hat and met at a large medallion of a bull's skull with orange tassels. Over his bare muscled torso, he wore a black trench coat with red flame like markings licking its bottom. There was a kanji for "ACE" on the back of the coat.

The said person was Namikaze Uzumaki Ace, a Jounin of Konohagakure no Sato and son of Namikaze Minato, The Yellow Flash and Uzumaki Kushina, The Red Hot-Blooded Habanero of Konoha.

He didn't stop his search however. He went to the nearest tent, which was a little afar, and peeked inside. It made his blood boil to see what was happening. Inside the tent, around 20 girls were standing with their hands and legs tied to wooden posts with ropes . Their ages ranging from 14 to 40 from a brief assessment. However what angered him most was the fact that most of them were scarcely dressed and had many scars and marks all over their bodies.

Before them stood a couple of bandits chatting with a rich and gruffy looking man. Rich from the fact that the kimono he was wearing was made up of one of the finest fabric he had seen all over the Hi no Kuni. The man was in his mid forties if his hairstyle and skin was anything to go by. Ace wasn't within the field of vision for the bandits though the girls could clearly see him.

Neither the bandits, nor the man gave any head to him. Maybe misunderstood him for one of their own. Ace kept steadily walking towards the crowd. His fists were clenched tightly and knuckles were white. He was barely controlling his urge to just lash out and burn everything in the vicinity.

The prisoners were eyeing him suspiciously. They weren't sure yet about what to make of this man. Sure he looked like a shinobi but he could be a customer like others too. However there was just a little ray of hope too that this person could be the one to save them all.

Ace reached and poked the shoulder of one of the bandits. The bandit turned around.

"Wha-" He tried to say but was cutoff.

**'Higan!(Fire Gun)'**

With his index and middle finger pointing towards the heart of the bandit just like a gun, Ace fired a bullet made of fire and the said bandit was dead on the spot.

That made the other two jump back in fear.

"Who are you? How the fuck did you get in?" Asked the remaining bandit. Though he was clearly scared by the sudden intrusion.

"Hey, you said that the exchange would be extremely safe. I got you your money. Now you give me my girl. You don't know how influential a person I am." The man said with anger and a slight hint of panic.

Suddenly, from the outside, around 8-10 more bandits got into the tent.

"You lot, what the hell were you fucktards doing? How did the brat get in?" Asked the bandit standing near Ace.

"We will take care of him right away leader-sama." They started to rush towards Ace but before they could even take the first step-

**'Hotarubi!(Firefly Light)' **

Small greenish yellow fireballs started floating around them. Before they could even react.

**'Hidaruma!(Fiery Doll)'**

They all blew up in an explosion killing the bandits within a second.

The remaining bandit was literally pissing his pants now. To think that his minions would be defeated so easily. This guy in front of him was definitely a shinobi and no ordinary one at that. Before his chain of thoughts could go any further, he noticed a finger gun pointed at his skull.

"Tell me everything." Ace said in a cold emotionless voice.

Now the bandit may have been a little arrogant but he wasn't a fool. He knew what those two fingers could do to his brain. His eyes went towards his dead companion and he shuddered at the thought of something similar happening to him.

He spurted it all out immediately. Apparently, they were a part of a countrywide human sales association. There were around a dozen such camps all around the fire country where they would kidnap women and girls from non-shinobi villages and sell them to anyone willing to buy.

From the information he got, there was one more such tent within this camp where girls were held against their will. He ordered the bandit to free all the girls which was done rather quickly. He turned towards the bandit.

"Thanks for all the information. I will pray for your soul to reach somewhere else other than hell." With that he pointed his finger at the bandit's heart.

"H-Hey! I thought you won't kill me. That's why I told you all of that information." The bandit stated stuttering with fear now.

"I said no such thing." Ace replied calmly.

"But-" Before he could mutter another word, his heart was burnt to crisp.

He turned towards the man.

"N-Now look here boy. I am a very wealthy person. I have a platoon of shinobi doing my bidding. I can just order your assassination and you will disappear from the face of the earth in no time. " He tried to intimidate Ace.

Ace pointed his middle and index fingers towards the man.

"W-W-Wait. We can come to an agreement. That's right. I will give you enough money to live a life of luxury forever." the man said, extremely afraid now.

He turned towards the women who were eyeing the proceedings intently now.

"Do whatever you want with him. Just leave enough of him to identify his face."

With that, he disappeared in flames.

He reappeared near the supposed tent where more of the girls were held. He went near the gate and stepped inside. The place was worse than the previous one. Not only the girls were tied the same way, apparently he could here girly screams behind the curtains of one of the beds.

Everything was quite clear from the looks of it. This was a whorehouse where girls were raped against their wishes. He just couldn't take it anymore. Time to let loose a bit.

(15 Minutes Later)

The whole camp was in flames courtesy of one Namikaze Ace. The said person was standing near the exit with a crowd of miserable looking women around him.

"It would be better for you all to return to your respective villages. I have few more matters to attend to." Ace said.

He was about to get down to the village mayor who he was supposed to report to when he was done with destroying the bandit camps however his Observation Haki suddenly kicked in and he barely dodged around six kunais aimed for his vitals.

"Like getting out of here alive?" came a voice from behind one of the flaming tents, addressing his previous declaration.

The owner of the voice soon got out of the hiding since the element of surprise was already gone. The person was a gruff looking dark skinned and brown haired man somewhere in his mid 30s. His attire was that of a standard shinobi and he had a headband tied around his head with Kumo's insignia on the metal plate. In addition to the expected attire, there was a peculiar crest on his arm in the form of a tattoo.

"I am actually surprised that you were able to dodge that. I thought I would have the first blood under my belt. Doesn't matter anymore probably, the end result has already been decided." he said in a grumpy voice with a sinister smile marring his face.

Ace had some clue about what this could be about but nevertheless, it's better to just ask. Besides, he was not really in a mood of more bloodshed. He will prefer it if this matter can be resolved peacefully, which clearly seems to be impossible for now.

"If you really know who I am, you should expect better than to catch me off guard by something as petty as that. Now onto business, I know I have made some pretty nasty enemies throughout my life who would want nothing more than to kill me anytime, but I want to know if you do have some other valid reason." Ace replied in a calm and emotionless voice.

"For once, you destroyed the camp I was assigned to protect. Then you freed my source of income." He said eying the women who stood terrified of the shinobi who was considerably brutal with them during their nightmarish experience.

He waved his hand in a direction and around 10-12 men in black ANBU attire leapt out of various places throughout the camp. They were mixed in terms of nationalities however they carried the same crest as before proving that it signifies their allegiance to a particular group or organization.

"So this camp indeed has some ninja protection. I suspected that a black market of this scale wouldn't be left in the hands of the weak bandits I just encountered." Ace said eyeing all of them. He then looked at the women and mouthed a 'GO'. They all ran as fast as they could to get out of the hellhole.

Ace couldn't decide whether he's at an advantage or not right now. Not unless he gauged the opponent's skills. Surely they outnumbered him but quality over quantity is a standard rule in shinobi world. His dad's victory over Iwa in the last war was a perfect example.

But he was sure about something just about now. This wasn't a C-ranked mission as handed over to him by the Hokage. When he got the mission, he was wondering why the kage would send one of his elite to something as trivial as cleaning up of a bandit camp.

So the kage indeed knew of the possibilities. Anyways, he was going to have a talk with the town mayor who handed this mission over to Konoha.

"Enough of the talk, you need to die, NOW!"

4 of the now confirmed 12 shinobis leapt infront of him. Two of them threw a bunch of kunais and shurikens which Ace easily dodged with his Mantra. Seeing that their projectile weapons won't be doing any damage, one of the shinobi jumped forward with a kunai in hand.

He went forward with a plan to slash the young Namikaze's neck but he wasn't prepared for the nearly flawless dodge and overwhelming speed with which Ace slid under the attack to nudge his opponent's head with an elbow. If the speed was overwhelming then, the strength displayed by the blonde was godly now.

The shinobi was instantly sent flying towards a burning tent from where he definitely won't be getting back. Ace mused that the shinobi's skills would have been near that of a chuunin's at best.

Seeing that their partner was out of the equation, the three remaining shinobis went for the hit at once.

Ace merely ducked under a kick and delivered a chop with his left hand to the one behind the most recent attacker. The speed was too much for both of them and as a result, the second one was sent sprawling towards a cart of sorts parked nearby.

Seeing that Ace's back was wide open, the third one went for a uppercut towards his head. But he couldn't have been more wrong in his assumption when a second Ace kicked him hard from behind which resulted in his fall and subsequent unconsciousness.

A clone, the first shinobi realized. He tried to attack the real one asap. He went for a straight jab and the fist indeed connected however the result was a cloud of smoke. The moment of surprise cost him the battle when Ace swept him from behind and kicked him hard enough to send him flying a long way down before he could fall.

Seeing how easily their comrades were dispatched by the blonde, 4 of the remaining shinobis from the original group attacked at once.

Ace merely spread his standing a bit, extended his hands outwards and waited for the enemies to arrive. The men were confused and assumed this as some kind of taijutsu stance. Without any doubt, they went forward for the attack however before they could get within a few centimeters of the blonde's stance, something unexpected happened.

An almost opaque blue wave of sorts was released from Ace's outstretched hands and sent all of them flying outwards. The resulting impact was so powerful that all four of them were out cold before hitting the ground.

The remaining four of the group were terrified by now. This person just annihilated most of them without breaking a sweat, hell it doesn't even look like a proper warm up for the blonde. They looked towards their leaders uncertainly but his hard gaze was proof enough that they have to dive into the battle.

They all went forward with a battle cry. Ace raised his hands up in the air and clasped them together waiting for the perfect moment. When the enemies were within the area of influence, he turned the outline of his body into fire and started spinning rapidly creating a small tornado of sorts.

The attackers didn't stand a chance and were burnt to crisp. Ace was satisfied with the result. He wanted to test this particular attack against numerous enemies. He maneuvered this attack by observing the Hyuuga clan's famous defense kaiten. Not only his version was faster but also considerably more devastating due to the use of fire element.

The leader was reconsidering his chances by now. He was sure that his shinobis would at least be able to injure the blonde kid now approaching him but apparently they were defeated so effortlessly that it seemed like an illusion of sorts. How can someone be that powerful?

Still, he refused to believe that he could be beaten by a young kid. His underlings must have been too weak to take a punch or two. Yeah, that should be the case. That has to be it. He tried to reassure himself.

He calmed his nerves down and brought out a couple of trench knives from his pocket. He fed his chakra into the knives and they soon were crackling with lightning chakra.

Ace got into a more organized stance. The opponent leapt forward at high speeds and Ace was keenly observing trying to predict the next move. The kumo shinobi went for a horizontal slash with one of his knives. Ace easily dodged the attack by bending backwards however the shinobi moved his legs in a fashion to attempts a roundhouse kick but Ace was no slouch either and easily blocked it with one of his hands.

Ace's counter was a kick of his own which was dodged by the enemy. They kept up at dodging and countering each other's moves for a while, their clashes would have been mere blurs to any untrained eyes.

Ultimately one of the shinobi's trench knives were able to graze past Ace's shoulder creating a shallow gash. Seeing that he was able to draw blood, the kumo shinobi started to laugh victoriously.

"So you were not so tough afterall. I will collect that head of yours and serve it at a silver platter to Iwa now. The destruction of the camp doesn't even matter now. I will be much more richer after receiving your bounty anyways. GAHAHAHAHA." the shinobi said with a fully blown laughter.

Ace however was impassive. He wasn't really taking this seriously. Well, it's time to change that. He created some distance between himself and the kumo shinobi.

"We will see about that now" Ace said with a smirk.

**'Hiken(Fire Fist)' **Ace roared.

Seeing the inferno heading towards himself, the shinobi hastily formed hand seals and delivered a counter attack of his own. He created a ball of lighting between his trench knives and launched it towards Ace.

**'Raiton: Raikyuu(Lightning Release: Lightning Ball)'**

The attacks collided for half a second but evidently the kumo shinobi heavily underestimated the flaming fist. The lightning ball dissipated within its counter without a trace and the fist soared towards the kumo shinobi. He was barely able to make it out of the attack and even though he managed to, the whole left part of his torso was engulfed in second and third degree burns.

But that was the least of his worries since before he could even breathe a sigh of relief for getting out of it alive, he found a kunai drawing a bit of a blood, at his throat.

"I-I give up! I give up" He surrendered hurriedly.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

'Knock Knock'

The sound of the knocks on door awakened the town mayor out of his slumber. Taking a nap was the only thing he could do these days after all. One would expect that the town must have been well flourished for the leader to have been resting peacefully but that was far from the truth.

Ever since the bandit activities started nearby and kidnappings started taking place on a regular basis, the town people were terrified to get out much of their homes. This caused the previously well established trading market within the town to collapse.

Not only the economy went downhill due to this but apparently their tourism suffered the most. On one hand, people were afraid to visit being concerned with their safety and all, on the other hand, they didn't really had much of a reason to visit either apparently because of the inactivity within the town market.

Consequently people started losing money. Their trades were abolished, income sources more or less closed. Their safety was heavily compromised. And as expected from the populace, they started migrating out of the place.

Few of the people who stayed were barely alive with only the most basic of their needs being fulfilled.

The mayor's hands were tied since he didn't really have proper force to tackle the whole upheaval. He went for hiring the necessary force by asking a ninja village for help. As you would expect from a town such as this one, he barely had a small amount of government funds intact.

He took a chance and requested for a C-ranked mission which was second lowest in terms of capital investment. He just hoped that whatever team was in charge of the mission, will be successful and would agree to renegotiate in the end about the difficulty of the mission.

"Come in." He said

The door opened halfway and a kid entered. The kid looked barely around 13-14 years old. The kid was dressed in pants and a trench coat which was long enough to go beyond his knees. Along with this outfit, there was an orange hat on his head.

Now this wasn't a regular outfit for any civilian in his town, hell not in any nearby town either. Going by the looks, he surmised that the person must be a shinobi.

Said boy bowed slightly in respect.

"The mission you requested at Konoha was assigned to me and it has successfully been completed."

What? This kid, hardly in his teens has dispatched off of the whole camp? Impossible. Wait, maybe...

"So, is your team relaxing somewhere around the town? Or have they already departed towards konoha and you are sent to report here perhaps?"

"None of these is the case mayor-san. I'm afraid, I was the only one assigned to this mission." Ace replied politely.

"What? But you're so... young." the leader couldn't help but voice his thoughts. 

Ace smirked.

"Don't judge a book by its cover mayor-san. Besides, deception is a shinobi's greatest tool. Underestimation could easily be the death of us." He replied calmly with a glint in his eyes and a bit of amusement in his voice.

"But apparently, I have something else of utmost importance to be discussed before we can have a chitchat about my... age or accomplishments." Ace said.

This is it. He must be pissed about the false mission details. Brace yourself, here it comes. He gulped and nodded, indicating Ace to continue.

" Judging from your expression, you may have already guessed what this is all about. Just to complete the formality, it seems that the mission had been falsely ranked. From the information provided at the mission booth, this was supposed to be a C-ranked mission."

"The probable number of bandits being encountered was expected to be around 12-15 and the actual number was over hundred which is deviating far from the expected."

Crap! Even I never imagined there could be that many of them.

"It was mentioned in the details that this was a simple infiltrate and destroy mission but evidently it was more about rescuing the kidnapped ones."

That was to be expected.

"But what changed the tier of the mission most was the fact that I encountered several chuunins and a jounin during infiltration."

Chuunin? Jounin? Wait, weren't they ninja ranks? And if I remember correctly, Jounins were especially powerful ones. Even I did not see that coming.

"So, if I were to make an accurate postulation, I would say that the mission was easily an A-ranked one."

The mayor was sweating bullets by now.

"So, We will need to settle it somehow within ourselves, won't we?" Ace said in a low voice.

"Get in." Ace said facing the door.

What? Who could it be? Why's he calling someone inside in the middle of our conversation. Could it be that he's calling one of his comrades? But why? Maybe he just wants to kill me and take over this village as the mayor. That's it! He's calling his comrade who will stay here as the mayor while this guy assassinates me and get back to his village. But won't the villagers oppose some random person posing as their leader. I have never really understood the shinobi arts but they might have a way around this too. Damn, I really am doomed! What about my family? Will they be left unscathed? I can't risk it. I should try to strike a deal with him maybe? Yes, if I tell him tha-

His thoughts were cut short when he saw an exact replica of Ace entering from the gate. He had a couple of seemingly heavy baggages sagged over his shoulders, on one side each. He put both of them down with a clunk and they insides of the bag were left in the open sight.

To the mayor, it was nothing more than something very very shiny for a few seconds. When he concentrated a bit, he could make out a heap of shiny metals and jewels. Most of them shining in a golden light. The contents, the way they seemed had to be worth a few times over the total annual budget of his village!

He was gaping like a fish at all the wealth that was lying in front of him. Seeing that the mayor won't be able to utter a word anytime soon, Ace began explaining on his own.

"Just some stuff I found within the camp. Apparently, the chuunins and the jounins weren't there for nothing. With this kind of riches in their physical posession, I am surprised that there were only as many ninja as I encountered." Ace said, clearly amused seeing the mayor's astonished expression.

"Now, since the amount you deposited at the mission booth in Konoha wasn't enough to satisfy the true worth, I will be taking back additional fees for an A-ranked mission as well as a large penalty which will make sure you, or anyone else for that matter, won't try to deceive us again. This will be around 70 percent of the money within one of these bags. Keep the rest." Ace said.

"I... I don't know what to say. No matter how much I thank you won't be enough. Still, I can't just be indebted to you like this. You are a hero to this little town. At least ask for a favor for yourself, like keeping the rest of money within the first bag?" the mayor said with moist eyes.

"First things first, I am NOT a hero. I was paid to do this job and will be paid again pretty heavily for the additional change in the mission rank." Ace said.

" How can you say that? You just saved a whole god damn town from a deep catastrophe including poverty and abduction." the mayor said with shock in his voice.

"You still don't get it do you? Well, how should I explain this? Let's see... yeah I got it! Say, there's a chunk of meat. Heroes will share eat with everyone and eat happily. Me? I would much rather eat it all myself. Got it now?" Ace replied taking a leaf out of Luffy's book.

"GAHAHAHAHAHA!" He laughed heartedly at the mayor's incredulous look.

A sound of rumbling brought the mayor out of his temporary facade. Ace eyed his own stomach sheepishly.

"Anyways, I better be on my way already."Ace said and turned towards the window, ready to leave.

"Wait, I know how we can repay you. How about you let me treat you to tonight's dinner?" mayor asked hopefully.

"Well, I don't see why the hell not." Ace said.

A few hours, couple hundreds of pans with bare bones lying on them from the probably already savored meat, a pile of restaurant bill and half an hour of crying from the mayor over how 'handing over the money would have been a better idea' later Ace was found snoozing over his dinner table. Surprisingly a piece of meat was still in his hands which, no matter how much the waiters and hotel manager tried, they couldn't separate from him.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

A lone loose leaf broke from one of the trees within the jungle. All for the season of autumn that is. The dry specimen continued to follow its own path which purposefully ends at the ground. Gravity was playing its own role in the process. The leaf was well on its way to fulfilling its destiny when a figure swooshed past it and disturbed the predetermined trajectory.

The figure was hopping from branches to branches within the heavy forest. Every time he stepped on a branch and planned on hopping on to another, a visible faint blue energy was formed at the sole of the feet pushing him to the limits of his speed.

It has been a couple of days since he completed his last mission. He could have sworn that there was some kind of time dilation effect by how long these couple of days seemed to him.

Excitement was on the peek for said person. He was going to do this after a while after all. How much time has it been? Six months or so maybe. Not a very long time considering that he has lived for over 24 cross this small period of time. Like he cared for unimportant things like this right now.

His excitement only increased leaps and bounds when he saw a small clearing within the forest. A water stream was flowing nearby indicating that the place was perfect for habitation and domestic farming if needed be. For anyone who wouldn't know, the clearing was empty with apparently dried leaves scattered all over the ground.

There was a small boulder at the edge of the clearly. He approached the boulder giddily and crouched in front of it. Spreading his senses and taking in the surroundings, he searched for any form of life nearby. Seeing that it was fine, he bit his thumb and placed it on a swirl embedded over the boulder.

With a slight push of chakra in addition, the seemingly empty clearing was filled with what seemed like a wooden house accompanied by a front compound at the front. His heart was beating really fast now. How would the reaction to this long wait be? He would see to that as it plays out.

He jumped in front of the door and opened it after a couple of knocks. Inside of what looked like a living room, an outwardly middle aged woman along with a young women were sitting in a way that they were facing the new entrant. In front of the couple of women(A/N: I won't go into the wardrobe details.) was a young kid who's back was turned towards him.

"Tsunade-san, Shizune-san... I-" As soon as the voice reached the young kid's ears, he instantly leapt towards the person.

"Ace nii-san!" Ace was instantly hugged by a hyper-active kid.

"Miss you too little brother." Ace said and ruffled Naruto's hairs affectionately.

**A/N: By now, it's quite clear how Naruto will be raised in this fic. Also Ace realized somewhere in the past(will be explained within flashback, just like I said.) how much of an asshole he was being by shunning his parents. This chapter was more or less the whole story up till now from Sarutobi's point of view. But Ace has a different take at this, so stay tuned to see how he walked down the path of a shinobi and turned out to be somewhat of a legend at such a young age. Also, I don't know if I am following the canon timeline correctly or not but let's just say that Ace is around 13 years of age at present. There's one more thing I have to discuss. Having read the fight scene above, someone might have mused that Ace will be sort of super in this fic. But let me make it clear, Ace is strong but not godly or anything close. He isn't invincible and he will have trouble with stronger opponents. So in order to gauge Ace's strength, I am stating it below numerically.**

**Ninjutsu- 5**

**Taijutsu- 4.5**

**Genjutsu- 2.5**

**Intelligence- 4**

**Stremgth- 5**

**Speed- 4**

**Stamina- 4.5**

**Handseals- 3.5**

**Total- 33(Note: The stats maybe subjected to change as the story progresses.) **


End file.
